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High school graduation is a time of celebration and completion, but one laced with the shadow of “What next?” Behind the happy faces of graduates tossing mortarboards and parents beaming with pride for their children’s accomplishment are questions about the future. Career Education Center students standing on the stage of Community College of Denver last Spring had clear answers and no doubts. They claimed tangible real world skills along with discipline and skills to succeed in college. This class was a landmark one for the school, with accomplishments exceeding even the highest expectations of faculty, parents, peers and the graduates themselves.

CEC Middle College has a lot to be proud of. One of the Consortium’s oldest members, it has the unique mission of offering students high school requirements, college course credits and certificate bearing classes and internships that get students college and career ready.

In September CEC was acknowledged in Denver’s Magazine, 5280 as one of the top 20 high schools on the Front Range of Colorado. But that was only one of several accolades for principal, Scott Springer who says his school is riding a wave of growing success.

“We had our largest graduating class last year of just under 100 students,” said Springer. “The 2013 class had the highest ACT scores ever. Graduates earned more than $1.7 million in scholarships and all graduates were accepted to CCD (Community College of Denver). Moreover, 87 students got offers from two colleges or more.”

CEC Middle College offers hands-on, versatile, relevant and rigorous classes for students who are earning college credits at the Denver school. Currently the school has 400 full and 320 part-time students enrolled. Part time for CEC Denver refers to students who do half days at CEC and half at their home high schools. All students are enrolled in one of eighteen career programs.

College success for these students means time saved and dollars earned. These dollars translate into savings for their families, savings for the institutions, which will not have to remediate college ready-college performing-graduates, and to graduates who are trained in fields that are waiting to hire career ready youth. Last year’s students earned more than 1,500 semester hours of college credit which adds up to more than $180,000 in college tuition. 67 students graduated with 12 college credits or more; and three graduated with more than 40 hours. Students were awarded $1,795,000 in scholarships ($900,000 by the Denver Scholarship Foundation). An unprecedented three students earned the prestigious Daniels Fund Scholarship which covers full tuition, lodging and travel for four years.

CEC graduates were also exemplary in their academics. Nineteen seniors qualified for Phi Theta Kappa, Community College of Denver’s honor organization, earning a minimum of 12 college credits and a college GPA of 3.5 or higher. This year was the first year in the history of CEC, the school brought home a school Championship. CEC’s Robotics team won the National competition, which earned them a spot to represent the school in the World Competition in St. Louis in April. Many of the team members were seniors.

MCNC and its members all congratulate CEC Denver and their principal, Scott Springer on these accomplishments and wish them nothing but mile high honors in the future.

If your school has great stories to share, please share them with our readers. Contact MCNC Newsletter

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http://mcnc.us/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/mcnc-logo.gif00Celia Bratthttp://mcnc.us/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/mcnc-logo.gifCelia Bratt2013-11-04 21:41:172013-11-13 15:19:27CEC Middle College: Where College and Career Readiness Go Hand in Hand